Hiya, I'm Kelly, join me each week as I share with you my views on beauty, fashion and lifestyle choices.

Sunday, 24 April 2016

I Love ... Beauty & Lifestyle Books

Hello everyone!I don't know about you but it seems more and more beauty/lifestyle books are coming out each month. With so many to choose from how do you pick? I thought I would share with you some of my favourite ones I like to read in my spare time. These books are also great if you want to double check how you create a look or what type of things you should be wearing for a specific event.

In no particular order, the first one is "Life with a sprinkle of glitter". This book has everything you need - from beauty, pampering & shopping to setting up home, body confidence and dating. In fact the whole book is a mix of Louise's life experiences, tips, tricks and advice, as well as things to make you giggle. I think it is great that Louise has decided to include a section about being kind, as its something we should all strive to be, yet it hardly ever features in any books. A lot of people say they never have time to read a book, which is true a lot of the time. However with "Life with a sprinkle of glitter", you can read any section of the book rather than reading it cover to cover. You can simply just pick out the sections you are interested in at the time and skip any of those that you don't want to read yet which is great. I have to admit that I absolutely love the different coloured & patterned pages that give the book more of a scrapbook vibe.Next up is one that I have had for quite a few years but I always revert back to it and that is "Coleen's real style". This was actually the first lifestyle/fashion book I ever bought with my own money when I was about 12 or 13. What I think is great about this book is you start off by choosing which body shape you are so that you can then progress through the book and choose which types of styles are going to be flattering for your shape and skip the ones that will make you look like a sack of spuds! The shopping notes have helped me out a lot in the past when I have wanted to check what my rights were with taking certain items back. As an added bonus, the skincare sections really talks through the different types of products and the jobs they do. I will warn you though, the list of online shops at the end of the book is a real danger! Many a type, I have worked my way down through the list and ended up buying things from each website. When I got my hands on "That extra half an inch" by Victoria Beckham, I will admit, I took it home, shut myself away and read it from cover to cover. Growing up, she has always been a style icon for me and the thought of her sharing her tips and knowledge in a book made me want to cancel my plans for a week so I could read it. For me, I felt Victoria's personality shine through and I couldn't help but laugh at some of the things she wrote. The images in the book are made up of the behind the scenes shots as well as "pap" photos and one's taken professionally for the book. It gives you a insight into Victoria's life away from the spotlight and I love that she chose to share a section on her amazing wedding. If that wasn't enough, at the end of each section is a couple of pages for notes, where you can write certain tips you want to remember or even add your own. The next two books are almost like a set. They are both by Lauren Conrad with the first being "Beauty". I remember watching Lauren when she was on Laguna Beach and then on the hills. From my early teens, I was watching how Lauren did her make up and then tried to replicate it. I felt like I grew up with this book. For example, I learn to cope with exam stress with the tips from the book and was shocked to learn that some ingridients in skincare and make up were actually bad and should be avoided. It made me think more about what I was putting on my skin, just the same as the "Eating right" section guided me through what to add to my diet for certain outcomes. These included eating more foods with antioxidants in during the summer months to help repair damge caused to my skin from the sun. Likewise, I found that when my bruises and scars were staying longer than they should, I needed more vitamin C. The everyday make up tutorials gave me simple ways to have a more natural look when going to school and later work and I found inspiration in the "Beauty through the ages" section for evening make up looks.The section book of the collection (although I think this one was published first) is "Style". Again as you can imagine, as a huge Lauren Conrad style I based my style on this book. It wasn't that I was trying to look like Lauren, the staple pieces were exactly what I would pick in a shop anyway. My favourite thing about the book is that it taught me how to look for multi use pieces. I was able to find clothes that I could wear to work during the daytime, then change the accessories to mix it up a bit and wear the same outfit out for the evening too! Gone are the days of lugging a extra bag of clothes around so that I had work clothes for the next day. The "Vogue body & beauty" book I actually inherited from my mum, when I was probably about 9 years old. When I was younger the only thing I would try was from the "Natural preparations" section, with my favourite thing to make being the almond cleansing cream. As I got older, I started to take more note of the bath exercises (which I had a giggle when trying to do them) and how to treat different health problems. Whilst this book is good, I think it is something that I would use more as I get older. The last book I wanted to share was "The glam guide" by Fleur De Force. For those who don't know, I am a huge fan of Fleur and love watching her vlogs and weekly videos. When it was announced that this book was coming out, I pre-ordered it straight away! That fact that she was vlogging the book writing process and including her viewers on the planning stages made me feel like I was a part of it. In terms of the book itself, I love the hair tutorials the most. They are so easy to follow and literally take minutes to do, yet they look like you have sat in a hair dressers chair for hours whilst they work the magic! The "Fitness maths" section was a real eye opener for me - it definitely made me think twice about eating that extra piece of cake. The "Self confidence" section is packed full with great tips to help you look confident in situations, even if you don't feel it at times. If you are thinking about setting up your own blog or YouTube channel, there is a great section for this, where Fleur explains to you all the things you need to think about (take it from me, there is a lot more that goes on behind the scenes of each post or video!).

If you have any recommendations on beauty, lifestyle or fashion books you think I will love, then feel free to comment or tweet me and I will be sure to check them out.